Heating convectors provided with gas heaters

ABSTRACT

Heating convectors are provided which include a housing, a fan arranged inside the housing and a gas heater to heat air which is sucked in by the fan through a vertical conduit forming the housing of the gas heater. An upstream wall of the housing may include an inlet opening in the region where the conduit of the gas heater is connected to the housing so as to allow shifting between a closed normal-operation position, in which the gas heater closes off the inlet opening, and an open position, in which the gas heater allows access to the inside of the housing, and therefore to the fan, through the inlet opening. The conduit may be connected by a hinge device to the upstream wall of the housing, in such a way that the conduit and the housing are rotatable relative to each other about a hinge axis (y) between the closed position and the open position.

The present invention relates in general to a heating convector forconvection heating of spaces, in particular, but not exclusively,industrial spaces and livestock farming areas. More specifically, thepresent invention relates to a heating convector of the type providedwith a gas heater as an air heating device, as specified in the preambleof the accompanying independent claim 1.

A heating convector of the aforementioned type is commerciallydistributed by the present Applicant under the trade name of CUBO S/G.An illustration of such a known heating convector is shown in FIG. 1 ofthe attached drawings. With reference to FIG. 1, the heating convectoris generally indicated 10 and comprises a housing 12, a fan 14, which ispreferably made as a centrifugal fan and is arranged inside the housing12 with its axis of rotation directed vertically, and a gas heater 16which is designed to heat the air which is sucked in by the fan 14through a vertical-axis conduit 18 forming the housing of the gasheater. The housing 12 is preferably made of sheet metal and has asubstantially parallelepiped configuration. The side walls of thehousing 12 are provided with grilles 20 positioned and with dimensionssuch as not to hinder the air flow flowing out of the housing, said airflow being generated by the fan 14 and being directed in a substantiallyradial direction. The top horizontal wall 22 of the housing 12 has acircular inlet opening, the fan 14 being arranged inside the housingcoaxially with said opening. The conduit 18 of the gas heater 16 isconnected to the housing 12 in the region of the inlet opening so thatthe fan 14 sucks in the air in a substantially vertical (axial)direction from the top end of the conduit 18 and expels the air, whichmay be heated by the gas heater 16 while flowing through the conduit 18,in a substantially horizontal (radial) direction through the grilles 20of the housing 12. The heating convector 10 is installed suspended fromthe ceiling of the space or area to be heated, by means of suspensioncables (not shown) which are connected either to the housing 12 or, morefrequently, to the conduit 18 of the gas heater 16.

According to this known arrangement, the connection of the conduit 18 ofthe gas heater 16 to the top wall 22 of the housing 12 is a mechanicalconnection of the bayonet type. Such a type of connection, however, hasa number of drawbacks. Firstly, any dirt which has accumulated in theinterstices between the joining surfaces of the housing and of theconduit may make disassembly of the conduit from the housing moredifficult, said disassembly being necessary for example for periodicmaintenance and/or cleaning of the fan. Secondly, once the conduit hasbeen disassembled from the housing the part of the heating convectorwhich is not suspended from the ceiling (namely the gas heater, in thecase where the suspension cables are connected to the housing, or thehousing, in the case where the suspension cables are connected to thegas heater) must be placed on the ground somewhere in the vicinity ofthe heating convector, which may not always be easy. Likewise,subsequent reconnection of the conduit of the gas heater to the housingis usually not so easy.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a heatingconvector comprising a gas heater which allows access to the fan withoutthe need to disassemble completely the gas heater from the housinginside which the fan is arranged.

This and other objects are fully achieved according to the presentinvention by means of a heating convector having the features specifiedin the accompanying independent claim 1.

Further advantageous features of the invention are set forth in thedependent claims, the contents of which are to be understood as formingan integral and complementary part of the following description.

In short, the invention is based on the idea of connecting by hingingthe conduit of the gas heater to the top wall or, in more general terms,to the upstream wall (with respect to the direction of the air flow) ofthe housing of the heating convector, so that the conduit and thehousing may be rotated relative to each other about a hinging axisbetween a closed normal-operation position, in which the gas heatercloses off the inlet opening of the housing, and an open position, inwhich the gas heater allows access to the inside of the housing, andtherefore to the fan, through the aforementioned inlet opening. With aheating convector according to the invention, therefore, the gas heaterremains attached to the housing, even in the open position, by means ofthe hinge which connects the conduit of the gas heater to the housing.Accordingly, during cleaning and/or maintenance operations on theheating convector with the gas heater and the housing rotated relativeto each other in the open position, both the gas heater and the housingremain suspended above the ground and there is therefore no need toplace somewhere on the ground one of these two components of the heatingconvector. Moreover, the operation of opening or closing the heatingconvector becomes very easy, since it suffices in fact to remove orinsert, respectively, a locking pin situated on a diametrically oppositeside of the conduit with respect to the hinge.

Further features and advantages of the invention will become apparentfrom the following detailed description given purely by way of anon-limiting example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, inwhich:

FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of a heating convector provided with agas heater according to the prior art;

FIG. 2 shows a perspective view of a heating convector provided with agas heater according to an embodiment of the present invention, in theclosed position;

FIG. 3 shows, on an enlarged scale, the zone where the conduit of thegas heater is connected to the housing of the heating convector of FIG.2; and

FIGS. 4 and 5 show perspective views, from two different angles, of theheating convector of FIG. 2, in the open position.

With reference to FIGS. 2 to 5, a heating convector according to apreferred embodiment of the present invention is generally indicated 10and comprises a housing 12, a fan 14, which is preferably made as acentrifugal fan and is arranged inside the housing 12 with its axis ofrotation (indicated z) directed vertically, and a gas heater 16 which isdesigned to heat the air which is sucked in by the fan 14 through avertical-axis conduit 18 forming the housing of the gas heater.

Preferably, the housing 12 is made of sheet metal and has asubstantially parallelepiped configuration. The side walls of thehousing 12 are preferably provided with grilles 20 positioned and withdimensions such as not to hinder the substantially radial air flowflowing out of the housing.

The top horizontal wall 22 of the housing 12 (upstream wall, withrespect to the direction of the air flow through the housing of theheating convector) has a circular inlet opening 26 (FIG. 5), the fan 14being arranged inside the housing coaxially with said opening. Theconduit 18 of the gas heater 16 is connected to the housing 12 in theregion of the inlet opening 26 in such a way that the fan 14 sucks inthe air in a substantially vertical direction (axial direction) from thetop end of the conduit 18 and expels the air, which may be heated by thegas heater 16 while flowing through the conduit 18, in a substantiallyhorizontal direction (more precisely, in a radial direction) through thegrilles 20 of the housing 12.

The heating convector 10 is installed suspended from the ceiling of thespace or area to be heated by means of suspension cables 24 (shown inFIGS. 4 and 5) which in the embodiment proposed here are connected tothe conduit 18 of the gas heater 16, but might alternatively beconnected to the housing 12.

In order to allow easy access to the inside of the housing 12 to carryout cleaning and/or maintenance operations on the fan 14 received insidethe housing, the conduit 18 of the gas heater 16 is connected by meansof a hinge device 28 to the top wall 22 of the housing 12, in such a waythat the conduit 18 and the housing 12 may be rotated relative to eachother about a hinging axis y (which extends parallel to the top wall 22of the housing, i.e. in a substantially horizontal direction) between aclosed normal-operation position, in which the gas heater 16 closes offthe inlet opening 26 of the housing 12, and an open position, in whichthe gas heater 16 allows access to the inside of the housing 12, andtherefore to the fan 14, through the aforementioned inlet opening 26.

More specifically, as can be seen in particular in the enlarged view ofFIG. 3, the hinge device 28 comprises a first hinge element 30 rigidlyfixed, for example by means of screws, to the conduit 18, a second hingeelement 32 rigidly fixed, for example by means of screws, to the topwall 22 of the housing 12, and one or more hinge pins 34 by means ofwhich the first and second hinge elements 30 and 32 are connected toeach other so as to be able to rotate freely relative to each otherabout the hinging axis y. In the embodiment proposed here, both thefirst hinge element 30 and the second hinge element 32 comprise a pairof connection plates (indicated 36 for the first hinge element 30 and 38for the second hinge element 32) which are directed perpendicularly withrespect to the hinging axis y and are connected in pairs by means of apair of screws acting as hinge pins 34.

A locking device 40 is provided on the diametrically opposite side withrespect to the hinge device 28, said device allowing the conduit 18 andthe housing 12 to be releasably locked in the aforementioned closedposition. As shown in particular in FIGS. 3 and 5, according to theproposed embodiment the locking device 40 comprises a first lockingelement 42 rigidly fixed, for example by means of screws, to the conduit18 on the diametrically opposite side with respect to the first hingeelement 30, and a second locking element 44 rigidly fixed, for exampleby means of screws, to the top wall 22 of the housing 12 on thediametrically opposite side with respect to the second hinge element 32.The first and the second locking elements 42 and 44 both comprise a pairof locking plates (indicated 46 for the first locking element 42 and 48for the second locking element 44) which have respective through-holes50 aligned with each other. In the aforementioned closed position, thethrough-holes 50 of the pair of locking plates 46 of the first lockingelement 42 are aligned with the through-holes 50 of the pair of lockingplates 48 of the second locking element 44 and it is therefore possibleto insert through these holes a locking pin 52 (partially visible inFIG. 2) in order to connect the two locking elements 42 and 44, andtherefore the conduit 18 and the housing 12 to which these elements arerigidly connected, to each other. Upon extraction of the locking pinfrom the through-holes 50, the conduit 18 and the housing 12 are nolonger fastened to each other and may therefore be rotated relative toeach other about the hinging axis y so as to assume the open positiondefined above.

With a heating convector according to the invention, the gas heaterremains attached to the housing by means of the hinge which connects theconduit of the gas heater to said housing, even in the open position.Consequently, during cleaning and/or maintenance operations on theheating convector with the gas heater and the housing rotated relativeto each other in the open position, both the gas heater and the housingremain suspended from the ground and there is therefore no need to placesomewhere on the ground one of these two components of the heatingconvector. Moreover, the operation of opening or closing the heatingconvector is very easy, since it suffices to unlock the locking device(for example by removing a locking pin) situated on a diametricallyopposite side of the conduit with respect to the hinge.

Naturally, the principle of the invention remaining unchanged, theembodiments and the constructional details may vary widely from thosedescribed and illustrated purely by way of non-limiting example, withoutthereby departing from the scope of the invention as defined in theappended claims.

1-5. (canceled)
 6. A heating convector for convection heating of spacescomprising a housing, a fan arranged inside the housing and a gas heaterto heat air which is sucked in by the fan through a conduit forming thehousing of the gas heater, wherein an upstream wall of the housing hasan inlet opening in the region of which the conduit of the gas heater isreleasably connected to the housing, so as to allow shifting between aclosed normal-operation position, in which the gas heater closes off theinlet opening, and an open position, in which the gas heater allowsaccess to the inside of the housing, and therefore to the fan, throughthe inlet opening, and wherein the conduit of the gas heater isconnected by a hinge device to the upstream wall of the housing, in sucha way that the conduit and the housing are rotatable relative to eachother about a hinge axis (y) between said closed position and said openposition.
 7. The heating convector of claim 6, wherein the conduit andthe housing are freely rotatable relative to each other about the hingeaxis (y), and wherein the heating convector further comprises a lockingdevice designed to releasably lock the conduit and the housing in theclosed position.
 8. The heating convector of claim 7, wherein the inletopening comprises a circular opening and wherein the hinge device andthe locking device are arranged on diametrically opposite sides of theinlet opening.
 9. The heating convector of claim 7, wherein the lockingdevice comprises a first locking element rigidly fixed to the conduit, asecond locking element rigidly fixed to the upstream wall of the housingand a locking pin configured to be inserted inside through-holes whichare provided in the first and second locking elements and are alignedwith each other in the aforementioned closed position.
 10. The heatingconvector of claim 6, wherein said upstream wall is a top wall of thehousing and wherein the conduit is arranged with its axis directedvertically.